[Jeff David]

Thank you for the insightful and informative info. It’s very much appreciated.

Yes – I have a Vixia HV40. Good to know that it is lousy for anyone who wants to do chroma key. Of course, it’s so old now that it’s archaic. I’ve had it about seven years or so.

If the background I am keying against is stable, I have been able to get some good keys. The problem of jagged edges mostly occurs when the background is not stationary. Using cookiecutter to reduce the area that needs to be matched has helped. In the end, I will probably simply delete my on-screen image in shots where the background is not static as it’s not really necessary that I be in every shot.

But it’s good to know the problem, “might” be with my camera and not my lighting, since I have been very careful to follow the online tutorials on green screen lighting. But you may have solved the mystery.

Another poster recommended getting Boris Continuum or Hitfilm (assuming they work with Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13) – do you think that would solve the problem of the lousy 4.2.0?

IF those programs do not work with Sony Movie Studio 13 then I would guess there is some other program that might.

And yes – the Canon Vixia hv40 is archaic by now so I do see the need for a new camcorder.

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Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

OK thanks.

I have been using cookie cutter and that helps as of course the area that has to be matched becomes much smaller.

I’ve got some pretty good key’s now.

I’ll try to get that software you mentioned in the future.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

The result with the adjustments in the camcorder was not good. I got a good key effect, but only by using cookie cutter and the image was not as sharp, was not bright and had a dull look to it.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

https://www.videomaker.com/video/watch/tips-and-techniques/18007-qa-best-dslr-settings-for-green-screen

That’s the link to the video on dslr settings.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

I found this video today and made adjustments in my camcorder that were recommended in the video. I’ll let you know how it works out once I shoot some video w the new camcorder settings.

The person in the video says (he’s talking about DSLR of course but I have most of the same settings in the camcorder):

turn sharpness, contrast and saturation all the way to the left

then turn sat up one or two notches (my camcorder only has on notch up or down so I can’t turn it up a hair).

turn sharpness up a hair

mentioned something about using cinestyle = flat neutral look – add one notch of sharpness

In dslr iso should be 160 – I can’t adjust this in my camcorder

aperature should be at f5.6 – I set my camcorder to this which is a large increase from where it was set at 1.8

record in other than native – record in 4.22 – that one is over my head w out more study so I haven’t done anything with that. I guess that’s a setting on my camcorder. duh?? No time to research right now.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

I was able to pixelate two different faces in Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13. All you do is copy a second clip and the pixelate that. I don’t know how many total you can do – I would imagine you can pixelate a bunch in the same clip i.e. 3, 4 or more. I’ve only pixelated two diff things in the same clip so far.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

I’m not sure how many layers you can have. I tried it but could not get it to work – I didn’t have much time so I was going to try again later.

Now I wonder – if maybe you can’t do multiple layers in Movie Studion Platinum 13?

I have to go back, and check – maybe they were talking about Vegas when talking about being able to do multiple layers.

I have to research it more. I’ll let you know what I find out.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

I think I figured it out Grazie. In the chat session on the youtube video I found this:

“Just duplicate the bottom layer again, then on the middle layer add the cookie cutter and repeat the steps in the video but for the second area you want to cover then add the blur.

The way to think of it is that the bottom layer is the entire scene but the two (or more) layers above are just circles that are on top of the entire scene, as long as the bottom layer is the entire scene you could have as many cookie cutter layers as you want.”

“Then add another layer, and use it to target the second face.”

I’ll attempt it now and see how it goes.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

Thanks Grazie.

I don’t have Vegas I have Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13. I wish I had Vegas.

There is not a lot of pixelation that needs to be done.

My project is about two hours long and making an educated guess, I would say there is maybe ten frames or clips where I need to pixelate something. Prob no more than 15 to 20 max? But maybe more in the 10 range.

How many people or license plates? Maybe 2, or 3 or 4 max.

Render? Well the project is 2 hours long but I need to do whatever needs to be done to get everyone pixelated as well as some license plates. If that is what has to be done then I’ll have to do that though I was not quite ready.

But I think you are suggesting I render just the parts that need pixelation? I could do that if need be although I’m going to have to go through, identify the sections that need multiple pixelations and render just those portions – if I follow what you are saying.

Is Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13 incapable of multiple pixelations in the same frame or frames?

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.

[Jeff David]

Thanks for the info.

I have venetian blinds that I close but that’s a good point you make, that there is still some shade of light coming through. Yes – makes sense if the sun goes behind a cloud then the overall lighting is impacted.

I just clicked on properties for the clip and under the, “general” tab it says:

Created Wednesday, August 16th, 2017, 11:40 PM.

I am not sure if that indicates the time I made the video or the time I captured it into my computer.

I’ll look at the footage in my camcorder – the camcorder gives the date and I think the time too.

Good point you raised!

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit Thumbnail is view out of the Olde North Church window where the signal lanterns were hung, as in, \”1 if by land 2 if by sea\” looking across the Charles River to the Charlestown Naval Yard where rebels awaited the signal April 18th, 1775.